Although this invention will be discussed with respect to its application to repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms the invention is not so limited and may apply to prosthesis for repair of other lumens within the human or animal body.
Throughout this specification when discussing the application of this invention to the aorta the term distal with respect to a prosthesis is intended to refer to the end of the prosthesis furthest away in the direction of blood flow from the heart and the term proximal is intended to mean the end of the prosthesis which when implanted would be nearest to the heart.
In our earlier patent specification published number WO98/53761 an endoluminal prosthesis was disclosed which in particular was useful for repair of aortic aneurysms. A problem with such a prosthesis is that for different persons or animals different size prostheses must be constructed because the specific dimensions of an aorta are quite variable in each of length, diameter and angulation between the renal artery region and the region of the aortic bifurcation.